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All-in-one whoopie sling / Dutch Clip suspension.

I had played with whoopie slings previously, and wasn't really sold on them - I loved the straightforward simplicity of my webbing and triangle buckle suspension on my Warbonnet. With the single piece of webbing for both suspension and tree hugger, all I had to do was pull out the webbing, wrap it around the tree, and clip a carabiner. But I wanted it to be lighter and less bulky, while maintaining that simplicity.

Enter the all-in-one whoopie sling/Dutch Clip suspension. Basically, this emulates the simplicity of the webbing setup, but is lighter and easier to adjust since it incorporates a whoopie sling. What I did was make a whoopie sling where the sling passed through a piece of rubber hose that was fastened in place inside one loop on the tree hugger. The other loop on the tree hugger then has a Dutch Clip on it, so I could simply pass the tree hugger around the tree, clip it in place, and pull the whoopie sling to the appropriate length. Since the whoopie sling is permanently attached to the tree hugger, there is no fussing with toggles, and it's impossible to forget your tree hugger and leave it behind.

Here's how I made it:

First, I tied an overhand on a bight into one end of a 12 foot piece of Amsteel. Then, I buried the working end inside the amsteel, like I was splicing it. This was mostly just to hide the ugly end of the cord, and also help prevent the line from pulling through. This will be the loop that gets girth hitched onto the Blackbird whipping mass. There are lots of threads describing how to replace the BB suspension, so I won't go into them.

Here's that loop, along with my highly sophisticated splicing tool

My next concern was how to pass the whoopie sling through the webbing loop on the tree hugger, without worrying about abrading the line or webbing when I adjust things. I decided to insert a piece of rubber tubing through the loop, then run the line through that tubing. I later put a few stitches in the webbing behind the tubing to hold it in place, similarly to how you fasten a Dutch Clip in place.

Now, all I had to do was run that line back to the hammock end, and do a 10" bury for a standard whoopie sling suspension, go hang it, and see if I fell on my butt

Here's the Dutch Clip in action:

And here's the whoopie sling bury:

And finally the connection point between the tubing and the tree hugger (this picture was taken with someone in the hammock):

There is some question about how durable the tubing will be, but I've used the exact same stuff in the lab while running experiments, and it was part of a pump that had rollers being driven against it by a motor for hours on end, and never had a tubing failure, so it's pretty resilient stuff. Even if the tubing were to fail, it's not structural - it's just there to reduce friction between the rope-on-webbing connection.

All in all, I vastly prefer this system to other whoopie sling setups. It's just as quick to deploy as my old webbing based system, while being both lighter and more compact. And it doesn't need a half-hitch knot to keep from slipping like my webbing did.

Yeah I saw the rope thimbles and they would definitely do the job in a bit more sophisticated fashion - I was just trying to eliminate as much metal as possible from the setup.

I cant fault that logic. The thimbles only weigh 2 grams a piece.

Originally Posted by sclittlefield

I'm a big fan of adjusting suspension right at the hammock rather than the tree.

Yep.. that is the norm. Its not that much different making the adjustment at the webbing end. Unless you have to hang it high... But if you can reach up and hang your straps, you can reach the adjustable tail.

Originally Posted by HappyCamper

What is the improvement by flipping it?

So that I can use the thimble. Its not so much an improvement as it is a way to allow me to use the thimble to keep the Amsteel and webbing from cinching down on one another. I could feasibly attach it the standard way, with the fixed eye at the hammock. But then one would have to fiddle with making sure the adjustable loop is placed in the thimble prior to loading, since there is nothing to keep it locked in the thimble. I started making this system without a thimble and having the adjustable loop in the webbing loop. But for longevity reasons, I decided to flip it around so there isnt as much were and tear where the cord and webbing make contact.

Very neatly done. Perhaps more neatly than necessary. I think the tubing is not really necessary. But it's classy.

Good thing I didn't show the backsplice behind the stopper knot to keep the adjustable tail of the whoopie sling from pulling through

I don't think of the tubing (or other options like rope thimbles) as strictly necessary, but I do think they will extend the lifetime of the tree huggers. I've seen enough examples of ropes sawing through webbing in my climbing career that I am pretty paranoid about soft-on-soft connections, and always like to have something between them to eliminate the kind of rubbing that can wear them out.